Conti’s Dr Rieth wins US Government Award

Dr Peter E Rieth, head of Advanced Engineering for the Automotive Systems division of Continental AG, has been honoured with the US Government’s Award for Safety Engineering Excellence in Washington DC. The award, presented by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), is traditionally awarded at the International Technical Conference on Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV) every two years.

Dr Rieth has been active in the field of automotive engineering and traffic safety for more than 22 years, and holds more than 100 patents worldwide. Dr Rieth has presented and been recognised at numerous symposiums, conferences, trade shows, and universities and is the author of numerous publications on topics related to safety engineering and vehicle dynamics. Traffic accident probability has been significantly decreased as a result of his work. “I am honoured to receive this distinction and special appreciation goes to the team at Continental Automotive Systems, without whom the development of these technologies would not have been possible,” commented Dr Rieth.

Dr Rieth was born in Eltville am Rhein, Germany in 1951. He studied mechanical engineering and earned his doctorate after five years as a scientific researcher at the Institute for Materials Technology at the Technical University Darmstadt. His professional career began in 1983 at the former Alfred Teves GmbH in Frankfurt as the strength department manager, and later as head of chassis systems development. From 1994 to 1998, Dr Rieth was responsible for advanced engineering and technology at ITT Automotive. With the merger of the company into the Continental Group in 1998, Dr Rieth joined the management of Continental Teves AG & Co OHG and assumed responsibility for the Technology and Automotive Systems department. Since 2003, he has been head of Advanced Engineering for the Automotive Systems division of Continental AG and is a member of the division’s board of management.

In the early 1990s, under the management of Dr Rieth, an active safety system was developed that is able to recognise unstable driving situations from their onset and automatically initiate corrective actions. The product, ESC, combines ABS, electronic brake force distribution, engine torque, and yawi control entered series production at Continental Teves in 1998.

His latest development, ESC II, in addition to the usual intervention in engine power and brake, also uses active intervention in steering and chassis control. This further contributes to improving driving stability in situations with a varying grip of the individual wheels.

For Dr Rieth the next step was the integration of active and passive safety systems using field sensor technology. This technology led to the realisation of Continental’s APIA (Active Passive Integration Approach). With this system the probability of a crash is assessed by a “risk calculator’ for the current driving situation, and graduated accident counter-measures are then automatically initiated. Working together with the automotive manufacturers, this project is now being prepared for series production.